Thousands of Jordanians condemn Charlie Hebdo cartoons
Xinhua, January 17, 2015 Adjust font size:
Thousands of Jordanians demonstrated on Friday in condemnation of Charlie Hebdo, which in its latest edition featured a cartoon of a weeping Prophet Mohammad on its cover.
More than 5,000 Jordanians took part in the demonstration in down town Amman, where they called on Arab governments to place pressure to prevent publishing such cartoons.
The demonstrators slammed the French magazine, saying freedom of speech does not mean ridiculing religions and provoking feelings of religions' followers.
On Thursday, Jordan's Royal Palace condemned the publishing of new cartoons of Prophet Mohammad by Charlie Hebdo.
It said in a statement that the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo that are offensive to Prophet Mohammad harm the feelings of the Muslim communities across the world.
King Abdullah II of Jordan was one of several leaders across the world who took part in a recent demonstration in Paris in rejection of terrorism, after three gunmen on Jan. 7 stormed the magazine's offices in Paris and killed 12 people.
On Wednesday, Charlie Hebdo printed its first edition after the attack which included new cartoons of Prophet Mohammad.
With a normal average of 60,000 copies, the paper's print for the latest edition was estimated at five million. For the first time, Charlie Hebdo is being printed in Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Turkish and English.
Hailed by westerners as a symbol of freedom of expression, the magazine has been denounced by Muslim leaders for printing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, which they said would provoke further hatred. Endit